


Led into the Afterlife

by RuvikKin



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Everyone is Dead, Idk what to tag this as, Is it a happy ending? We just dont know, LITERALLY, Past Character Death, up to you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-29 01:32:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18768472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RuvikKin/pseuds/RuvikKin
Summary: John dies and sees an old friend who takes him an important journey.





	Led into the Afterlife

**Author's Note:**

> This really wasn't supposed to be long, or have any sort of plot or whatever, but it did.

John knew he was going to die.

As he looked out the crack in the door, seeing the men with guns aimed at him, he was sure that was the last thing he was going to see. Abigail and Jack were gone, hopefully they’d stay gone and move on and at least live happily. John sighed and pushed open the doors, stepping outside to face the guns aimed at him. He drew his gun, aimed at one of the men and shot him right through the head- a last little ‘fuck you’ to these people before he felt the bullets ripping through his chest.

Johns breathing began ragged and he fell to his knees, he could feel everything all at once through his body. His lungs filling with his own blood and everything around him got blurry and turned black. He collapsed back on the ground and last heard the sounds of footsteps leaving before everything went numb and he took one final breath in.

  
  


“John…. John… C’mon buddy, open your eyes” John blinked his eyes open, the light around him bright and blinding almost. “There you go.” He heard a familiar voice and could feel a hand on him, gently coaxing him to get up.

A… Hand? On him-

He blinked again against the light and sat up, he felt heavy and numb all at the same time and tried to recall where he was. He remembered being shot and remembered dying, literally dying, so being alive didn’t make any sense.

“Easy, don’t think too hard. Just get up.” John looked behind him to where he felt the hand and if he had any breath left he’d have lost it.

Arthur.

“Arthur?” John got up and stared at him, he knew this couldn’t be real since Arthur had died so many years ago. “I… I’m dead ain’t I?” Arthur nodded and waved his hand down to Johns feet. John took a careful look and then jumped back, he could see his own body bleeding out in front of his farm. “My god. What the hell is goin on?”

“You’re dead John.” Arthur put his hand on Johns shoulder and gently squeezed it. It felt weird, although he could feel Arthurs hand on him it didn’t feel real like all those years ago. “You can stick around here for as long as you need.” John opened and closed his mouth like a fish gasping for air and he rubbed his eyes. Before he could ask anything else he heard the sound of horse hooves and looked up in fear as he saw Jack and Abigail riding over.

Abigail rushed over to his body and fell to her knees, crying as she saw Johns body. John tried to reach out to her but his hand only passed through her and only swayed her hair along with the wind.  _ “No…. Noo.”  _ Abigail sobbed into him as Jack walked over, shocked at the sight. He walked over to Abigail and comfort her the best he could.

“Arthur… Are they…” John struggled finding the words at the moment, it hurt to speak as he watched his family crying over his body. “Are they gonna be okay?”

“I think so. Then again I thought the same about you John. I can’t see into the future John, but I think they’ll survive.” John nodded and turned to Arthur, turning his back on the scene of his family. “You ready to go?”

“Go? Wheres there to go?” Arthur smiled and turned to lead John away. As John followed him things around them faded to white until they were walking across nothing but a white surrounding. If he wasn’t already dead he’d be worried, but he felt an odd sense of calmness as he followed Arthur into what felt like a never ending whiteness. Every so often he could see glimpses of his past and it made him slow, but Arthur would just pause with him, take him by the shoulder and keep leading him forwards. “I didn’t ask what you’re doin here Arthur.”

“Leading you to your afterlife. Its my job John, to watch over you. I have been all those years, watching everything you’ve done, waitin to take you away like this. It’ll be okay John, the gangs waiting.”

Soon the scenery around them turned green, and then began morphing into a place John was familiar with. A camp out near Valentine. He could hear people laughing and having fun, familiar voices surrounded him and Arthur just led him straight into it.

They were welcomed by the old Van Der Linde gang, all those lost over the years as the gang had broken and fallen apart, all together again like this. He could feel his throat closing up as he saw the happy and familiar faces around him. Lenny, Mac, Sean, Karen, Jenny, Hosea- he paused when he saw Hosea again since the man was so young in a way John hadn’t seen in more than a few photographs. Even Javier was there, Bill too, and a face that John had a hard time placing but when he did his heart sank- Kieran. It was overwhelming and he stepped back, looking over to Arthur for confirmation that he hadn’t just walked off.

“Arthur, where are we?”

“Home? I guess. Just been waitin’ for the rest of everyone to show up. You helped some of em along up here, and we’ve just been waiting for the last few to trickle in.” John scanned the area to see if anyone else was there, specifically someone who made his blood boil thinking about. Arthur laughed and pat John on the back. “Micah? No he ain’t here. He never was one of the gang truly and nobody led him here. When I watched you shoot him, happiest I ever felt. Watched him wander off dazed and confused when he died ‘n saw me. Guess he didn’t want to be around much longer.”

“Well at least theres that. Did…” John was almost afraid to ask but he took in a deep breath. “Did Dutch make it?” Arthur nodded and pointed over to one of the larger tents. John was ready to go there but Arthur grabbed him one last time and pointed his finger into Johns face.

“If you don’t see someone, they ain’t died yet. Be glad when you don’t see someone, even if you miss em dearly, you’ll see em eventually. They all come around. We all die.” With that Arthur let go of John and walked off, it was only then that John noticed everyone was shimmering almost- half there and half not- everyone just ghosts of who they used to be.

John turned back to the large tent, and carefully opened up the flap.

_ “John.” _

_ “Dutch.” _


End file.
